Alone
by Dana1
Summary: It was the worst year in all of their lives and Roman's announcement is the final straw. ****AU of 2018 post WM****
1. RAW October 23 2018

Title: Alone

Author: Dana

Rating: G

Warnings: HANKY ALERT! You have been warned

Summary: It was the worst year in all of their lives and Roman's announcement is the final straw.

Author's note: This is a complete AU. I got tired of reading people's complaints about Dean's promo and I don't know, this story came out of it. Check out warning again.

Disclaimer: I own no one in this fanfic.

Seth Rollins watched as everyone swarmed Roman Reigns in the Gorilla Position. He took some deep breaths trying to compose himself after breaking down in front of cameras and thousands of fans that were in the arena.

"Seth," Bayley called after she hugged Roman. Seth didn't want a hug from the woman. So, he just walked away quickly. He didn't turn around to see if anyone was following him. He wanted, no needed, to be alone.

"Seth!" Bayley said not seeming to give up. Seth always considered her one of his best friends but right now he didn't want her around. "Where are you going?"

"I need some air." He said as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Roman's leaving…"

"Yeah," he said, "I'll call him after the show. Look Bayley I just want to be alone." He said and walked away quickly.

"Seth," another voice called. He looked up to see Charley walking up to him with a microphone and cameraman. "Can I get a word with you?"

Seth was tempted to tell the interviewer off when he caught a glimpse of Renee Young standing there talking to Nikki and Brie Bella. He was surprised. Shouldn't she be out doing commentary? She looked distraught.

Of course, she was. Seth thought before turning to Charley. "What Charley?" he asked.

She seemed a bit taken aback. "The WWE Universe wants to know how you're doing. Dean…"

"Don't bring him up." Seth said with fire in his eyes.

"But Seth…"

"Look Charley. I don't want to talk about this. All I know is one of my closest friends has leukemia. I don't have time to talk about Dean Ambrose." He tried not to look at Renee. If he looked at her, he knew he'd lose it. "I've got a match with Dolph Ziggler." He said changing the subject. "Ask me about that."

"Sure Seth," she said. "How are you planning to contend with possible interference from Drew McIntyre?"

"Same way I've been doing it. By myself. Look Dolph is a coward. He can't beat me without the Scottish psychopath. Nothing I can do about it."

He brushed past her having enough with this conversation. He found a door that led outside and stepped through it. He had to calm down. he thought as he looked down at his shaking hands. He sat down on the steps. He closed his eyes. Roman's announcement was more than he could take. He only looked up when the door opened and a figure stepped outside.

Renee. One of the last people he wanted to see right now.

"Seth," she said walking up to him.

"I want to be alone Renee." He said.

"Dean would have wanted me to talk to you."

He snorted. "I don't think Dean cares about anything right now, do you?"

She moved back as if he had slapped her.

Seth immediately felt bad. "I'm sorry Renee. I just can't believe it. it was only six months ago Dean died from the MRSA infection. Now Roman's got leukemia again? It's…it's just too much to take." Seth said running a hand through his hair. "After we found out Dean was in the hospital during WrestleMania weekend, and died, we made each other promise that we wouldn't keep any secrets." He looked at her and she looked away as she was the one who, at Dean's request, didn't say he was in the hospital. He had made her go to the show and she had rushed back on a red eye to be there on Monday.

"Seth, I didn't want to keep that from you. He didn't want you guys to worry as he knew you guys had big matches."

"And Monday?" Seth demanded. "We had to find out from a tweet! A tweet from some dirt sheet because even WWE didn't know!" Actually, Seth wasn't telling the truth. He found out from Roman who got a phone call from his wife Galina who said she read it on Twitter.

"I wasn't thinking straight Seth! My husband just died." This was a conversation that they had had several times. She was tired of explaining herself or defending Dean's decision. "Look I'm going to go back inside. Good luck tonight." She said and walked back through the door.

Seth sat on the steps and cried.

DDDD

Notes: I'm probably going to write one more chapter of this showing the reaction to Dean's death announcement. This was a tough story to write but the idea was bouncing around in my head after Dean said karma got him and Roman now it was Seth's turn.


	2. RAW April 9 2018

Notes: This is a flashback chapter.

Seth entered the arena through the back entrance. He shook his head thinking about how it was just last night he had won the Intercontinental title. He had become a Grand Slam Champion just like Dean and Roman had.

He was more than a little surprised when he saw AJ Styles standing in the back talking to Daniel Bryan. They were part of the Smackdown roster. What were they doing at RAW? Had the draft happened already? He was pretty sure it wasn't until next week. This was the night that NXT stars popped up.

He really did a double take when he saw Sami Zayn standing there. now he knew for sure the man had been fired. He shouldn't be there. Did he wander into the wrong venue tonight?

He didn't give it much thought as he did see more of the RAW roster backstage. He went to his assigned locker room and found Roman sitting there with his cousins the Usos. Naomi was standing behind him rubbing his back.

"What's going on? Is the draft happening tonight and I wasn't told?"

Roman looked up at Seth and the tears streaming down the older man's face made the color drain out of Seth's face. "Is it Kit Kat?" he asked thinking of Roman's little cousin who had a serious illness.

"Seth you might want to sit down." Jimmy said grabbing a folding chair.

"What's going on?" he asked as he nervously sat down in the chair.

"Dean's dead."

"What do you mean dead?" Seth asked sure he had to have heard wrong. His friend was okay. That's what Renee told him last week. She said he wasn't going to be at WrestleMania weekend after all because his arm wasn't heeling right and he might need another surgery but she didn't seem too worried.

He hadn't had time to talk to her during WrestleMania week as there were a lot of different events to attend.

"I don't know," Roman said quietly. "Galina called me and said she saw a tweet. Vince called Renee and confirmed it. She never called anyone. Apparently Sherer and Meltzer heard about it from someone and tweeted it."

"So, no one knows for sure?" Seth asked. He knew he was grasping for straws but he didn't think this could be remotely possible.

"Oh, here you are." A voice said from the doorway. They turned to see Kurt Angle standing there. His eyes looked red from crying. "I wanted to tell you two first. I just talked to Stephanie who finally heard from Renee. Apparently, Dean had a staph infection in his elbow. By the time they found it, it had spread to his blood."

Seth was really glad that he was sitting in a chair. Roman let out a sob. Seth couldn't look at Roman. While Seth considered Dean a close friend, Dean was Roman's best friend and vice versa. They had a bond that he had tried to replicate with Roman last year but things never mended after 2014. Same with Dean.

"Usos and Naomi, you guys are welcome to stay for the show. I think AJ and Bryan may stay. AJ wants to say something if we do testimonials."

"I bet he would," Seth muttered under his breath.

"He said he respects Dean. Anyway, Stephanie is still trying to figure out how to do the show. We got guys and girls debuting but we want to do something for Dean." He looked at his watch. "I gotta go." He left the locker room.

The locker room was silent. No one knew what to say.


End file.
